A Tale of Two Springfields

So the title is a little random here - I was thinking about the two cities I am about to cover here, and from nowhere at all this title of a great old episode of The Simpsons sprang to my mind. Given how different my experiences were in Canberra and Melbourne (which I revisited), it certainly seems apt. 

After spending a fair few days in a rain-sodden Sydney doing, on the whole, very little, I decided to take action and head down to Canberra; it's not reputed to be the most riveting place in the world, but if one has the time, one might as well go see the capital of this continent-country. 

My generally none-too-high expectations for Canberra were, however, did not prepare me for the dreary reality. The place is basically a bunch of giant, often unsightly, concrete creations separated by cumbersome distances and connected by empty superhighways, with the empty spaces in between filled with what could be lovely parks but what are ultimately just vast expanses of dull, unplanned lawns and scrub (see below - both photos are taken right in the city "centre"). I'm a little loathe to paint such a bleak picture of any one place, but within a day and a half or so I had had thoroughly enough of Canberra. Getting anywhere is an enormous faff (which, to some extent, is of course my own fault for coming to a country this size without a driver's license), but that's no excuse for the complete absence of any character or soul or, for that matter, life. 

The one good thing I will say about Canberra is that the Parliament building does look cool, integrated as it is into a large hill. It's just that the rest of the city feels like a sort of motorway rest station catering to the Parliament, which for inexplicable reasons was put in the middle of nowhere. It's a beautiful example of a compromise benefitting nobody, as the only real reason for Canberra's existence is Sydney and Melbourne squabbling over which should be the country's capital. 

Clearly whoever planned Canberra lacked a thorough understanding of the complex intricacies of Basketball...and of sports courts in general, as this one was completely fenced in and there was no door.

It comes as no surprise, then, that I was glad to see the back of Canberra and make my way, for a second time, to Melbourne - the joys of a rail pass and infinite free train journeys! This turned out to be an excellent decision, although you wouldn't have known after my first night at the hostel I checked into. Nestled snugly between two train stations it was never going to be a quiet night, but the guy on the bunk below me returning completely drunk at 4am with a lady conquest and having (or attempting to have...?) sex for some 3 hours took levels of general discomfort to a whole new level. The muttered German sentence fragments drifting up from below were nothing short of depressing at times (the girl said "it's too small" several times - I struggle to conceive of any sexual situation where that might be good for the guy), and the squeaky rocking of the bed was not much of a lullaby, either. 

The next day, however, I got home to a very hungover, contrite and thoroughly apologetic bunkmate who actually turned out to be a good guy; with him and 4 others we spent the evening drinking cider (they had actual Bulmers, which is about the best that can be hoped for here) at an Irish Pub. On our way back the buskers lining the streets - which were still teeming at midnight as it was Chinese New Year - were nothing short of fantastic. They included a guy with a telescope trained on Jupiter, which thoroughly blew my mind, and someone in a penguin suit playing the bagpipes which is not easy to top in terms of sheer randomness. 

The hard at Melbourne's central rowing clubs. Not bad for a backdrop!

You know you have it good when palm trees grow where you row. Bit of a contrast to hearing of windswept -10C outings in Ely from Helena...

More importantly, earlier that day I had been for a run. This is not unusual in itself, but the halfway point happened to be at a place called Power House Rowing Club, and this also happened to be where I suddenly needed the loo something fierce. The girl outside the club turned out to be their captain, Caitlin, who kindly let me use their facilities. We chatted for a bit (I'm not one to forgo the possibility of rowing chat) and one of the club's men squad joined us. Nick turned out to be an HRR semi-finalist and they invited me along to the next day's squad session; I don't think I've ever accepted an invitation quite so gratefully. 

And so it was that I found myself in a shiny new pair, going for a pretty good sightseeing paddle down the Yarra - and subbing into a couple of the club's crews at the Ballarat Regatta the next day. This was a fun, laid-back affair, the equivalent maybe of St Neots Regatta or something along those lines, and I raced in a novice 4+ and an IM3 4+ (or thereabouts). Incidentally, we won both races, and I am now a proud owner of 2 Australian rowing medals and a new one-piece. It was the best possible way to spend my last day in Melbourne, and a thorough pleasure to fully immerse myself in all that we love (and love to hate) about the rowing world, including the terrible chat, the faff, blisters, scratch crews and dodgy rolling starts in awful conditions. Thanks again to all of PHRC! 

The winning Nov4+: Pav, Marcus, Tara, myself and Brad

Closer action in IM3 4+; also me stroking my first ever non-small boat!

Winning IM3 4+: Ross (I think?), Nathan, Dave, Caitlin and yours truly

In other vaguely cool news, I have now rowed on three Olympic rowing lakes: Melbourne 1956, Moscow 1980 and London 2012. 

And suddenly I find myself just a few hours shy of leaving Australia for New Zealand, where I will attain the furthest distance from Europe at 19-odd thousand kilometres. I am planning several sweet hikes which will hopefully result in some more exciting photos, so stay tuned!

Small Furry Critters...and lots of trains!

So this is another one with lots of pictures, particularly of animals of varying degrees of weirdness, cuteness and general attractiveness. Thoroughly enjoyed taking these! Apologies for the terrible formatting - I unreservedly blame blogspot's terrible photo integration software for this, but at least it saves space and makes things slightly more readable (I hope?).

Heading north from Melbourne towards Australia's tropical Top End, it was hilarious to witness the transition from suburban, pleasant Adelaide to classic redneck territory as I watched the landscape transform over the 3000km (1850 miles) via Alice Springs to Darwin. On the whole, buying a rail pass to get around this huge country has been a mixed blessing: without a driver's license, there are few alternatives apart from Greyhound buses and planes, which would mean just hopping from city to city without seeing anything in between. In fact, trains here have turned out remarkably comfortable, and it is very pleasant to just watch the world go by. The only thing that naturally falls short of expectations is the photography: unlike India, it is definitely not possible to just hang out an open door whenever you like.

Making very sure everyone knows what train they're getting on...

My first train was The Overland from Sydney to Melbourne, which winds through almost unbroken seas of golden wheat(?) fields. This is one of the three "great trains" through Australia, the other being the 2670mi India Pacific connecting Sydney and Perth and The Ghan (1800 miles), which I rode, from Adelaide to Darwin. The legroom inside is frankly astounding - enough that I could stretch my legs fully without my feet touching the seat in front - and the seats are armchair-style so I was a very happy bunny on this 10-hour journey which would have been exceedingly unpleasant on any UK train. The view was, shall we say, reasonably repetitive, with the only real variation occurring in the degree of undulation in the countryside, but pleasant enough to follow for a day (Apologies for the window reflections...):

Produce ALL THE GRAIN!

Adelaide proved a little surprising at first - as I made my way from the station to the house of my first couchsurfing hosts, Stephen and Luke, the city was completely deserted when it should have been rush hour on a weekday at 6pm. Indeed, Adelaide is a quiet place, but I had an awesome time staying at Luke and Stephen's, who took me in happily and let me partake in their beautifully relaxed lifestyle. We got off to a good start as I got treated to an AB, a stalwart of sorts of Adelaide cuisine - a massive takeaway of lamb/chicken gyros, chips and a generous measure of chili sauce. On the whole, couchsurfing has turned out to be a fantastic experience, and it was nice to get a bit of local knowledge of a place instead of stumbling from one standard backpacker place to the next.

Before leaving the fertile southern shores of Australia I decided I couldn't not go to a wildlife park to see all the weird and wonderful creatures this continent has spawned over the millenia. Cleland Wildlife Park proved a lovely day out and I got some pretty decent pictures out of it. 

Fun fact about koalas - they don't just look *really* slow, they actually are. In fact, they are the only mammal whose brain does not fit its skull but is, in fact, far smaller and sort of swims in liquid. This is because they spend a far higher percentage of their energy output than other animals digesting their poisonous eucalyptus-based diet so that not enough energy is left over to run a powerful brain. Living in said poisonous tree means they can actually get away with it because they have so few natural predators (predominantly fire). Talk about living the dream...

An intimate moment...and a...more intimate one?

And most importantly, of course, more marsupials (wallaby/Tasmanian devil/kangaroos)...

...and awesome dingoes!

My favourite, though, has got to have been this feisty kangaroo delightedly disposing of my apple core for me, and coming back keen for more:

Cheeky bastard! Gutted I didn't quite get his face in the frame here.

On my last day in Adelaide, Stephen and Luke took me rockclimbing with their Uni climbing club - on a perfect day for it (ie <30C), we drove out to Morialta Conservation Park to find a wall that, fortunately, proved manageable even with my meager skills. In fact, after chilling out for most of the excursion, enjoying my surroundings and trying and failing to find decent vantage points for photos, I had a go without and, even without climbing shoes, just about got by.

The man himself!

 The journey up to Darwin from Adelaide proved a long one. Having missed out on Ghan tickets for the first half of the trip to Alice Springs, I had to hop on an overnight coach for this leg before catching the train in Alice. Fortunately, a mostly empty bus and ample opportunity to stretch out made this bearable. As the wheat fields began to give way to the desert, I failed to adequately capture yet another glorious sunset through the bus window.

The border between South Australia and the Northern Territory comes, predictably, in the middle of nowhere - so much so, in fact, that Australia's point of inaccessibility (point on a continent furthest from the nearest coast) is right nearby. 

That conical thing on the hill is Australia's Point of Inaccessibility. A very, very long way from anywhere...except, as it turns out, Kulgera Pub!

...where they've come up with some interesting decorations.

The "Red Centre" - aptly named...

Alice Springs itself proved too much for me at 45-odd degrees - even in the bone-dry air it's hard to cope with those kinds of temperatures, so I fled to a shopping centre after finding very little to see in the town itself. Finally, the time came to board the Ghan, which proved as comfortable as the Overland and a lot more exciting in terms of views. My humble abode for the next 24 hours also came with oldschool-looking carriages and engine: Australia's trains are few and far between, but what they do have is pretty cool!

Whistlestop in Katherine: if possible, this place was even more desolate than Alice Springs - but at least water existed as we entered the tropical latitudes. 

Having made it to the tropics at long last, Darwin et al. will follow in the next post. Hope this one wasn't too long to deal with...feedback, as always, much appreciated!